Prompt: 047. Heart
Author's Notes: If you think I own Rent, you need more help than I do. I started this on February 14, obviously, but my soul was eaten and I didn't have time until now. I can't wait until the theatre department gives my soul back. :x

April always figured that if the stress of balancing school, job, and a social circle killed her, everyone could at least say that they died trying.

Fortunately, she wasn't dead yet. She merely had the worst cold in the history of mankind.

It had started as a runny nose, which was easy enough to solve, even if it managed to make her look ridiculous – but so would anyone else who walked around with a kleenex hanging out of her nose. Then came the sore throat, followed by headache, and her runny nose was now stuffy. It was annoying, and having her class load as well as work was doing nothing but adding stress to her life.

Finally, the day had come. When the alarm clock went off, she refused to get out of bed. Her head was too heavy with snot and congestion to lift and she simply had no will to get out of bed. Roger stirred slightly from the couch where he'd been sleeping in order to maintain his own health insofar as was possible, and she quickly became aware that she should at least reset the alarm. She reached out and paused with her hand on the clock. She didn't have to work today. Fuck school.

She switched it off.

April awoke sometime later in the day – rolling over revealed it to be a quarter of two. She didn't exactly feel better, but she didn't feel any worse. At least she was able to drag herself out of bed for tea. She carefully lit the burner and put water on to boil. As it did so, she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to comb some of the tangles out of her red locks and - oh. It was oily and it just made her feel grungy. She definitely could use a shower in the next couple hours. Ew.

She lifted the squealing tea kettle off the burner and poured it into the lone clean teacup and a new tea bag (she was sick, she was allowed to be luxuriant). She let the tea seep as she carried it back to the bed, and stopped in her tracks in the middle of the floor.

There was a message written in the frost on the window that she'd failed to notice before:

V-Day. Love you A. ♥, R

An irrepressible grin spread across her face, and she sat on the foot of the bed in order to enjoy her Valentine.